One of the more gorier movies to play at drives-ins in 1980 as well
as get an early home video release, HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP not only scared
movie goers, but those who watched this film got to witness some very over-the-top
gore and something that hadn’t been seen in a film before, but merely
implied: monsters raping female victims. It was considered by some as a modern
day CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. And it was in some ways, but the difference
is the things suggested in the “Black Lagoon” series were shown
in full detail! I first saw this on VHS in the early 1980s as a rental and I
remember not being able to finish my dinner after that initial viewing. My other
fond memory of this film was witnessing all the attractive naked women on display
throughout the film.

In the 1960s, Herschel Gordon Lewis had made many graphically gory
films, beginning the era where buckets of blood and fully exposed guts became
a staple in horror movies. In 1968, George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING
DEAD also set new standards as far as how graphic certain horror films were
starting to be. By the 1970s and early 1980s, horror and science fiction films
started doing things a bit more risqué in terms of showing the naked
body as well as more detailed graphic views of mutilated bodies. Horror films
that emphasized the gore content were becoming more in demand. Films such as
THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN, DAWN OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIE, as well as HUMANOIDS FROM
THE DEEP fit into this category perfectly.

HUMANOIDS
FROM THE DEEP, also known as MONSTER in some parts of the world, is about a
mutated species of Salmon created by scientists. Another genetics experiment
gone wrong, these man-sized creatures have sharp claws, green skin, elongated
arms and giant exposed brains. Apparently, these monsters were highly intelligent
as well as very aggressive. Man was its enemy and wanted to eliminate them so
the monsters would be the dominant species, while the women were used for breeding.
The late great Doug McClure stars as Jim Hill, basically a regular Joe with
a wife and child. McClure was no stranger to fighting monsters as he was in
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT, AT THE EARTHS CORE and
WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS. Vic Morrow (as Hank Slattery) plays a very nasty corporate
villain. There is a tremendously good subplot about Slattery wanting to open
a cannery while both people and animals (mainly dogs and fish) are getting killed.
The main rival for Vic Morrow is Anthony Pena (as Johnny Eagle) who is against
the cannery being built due to all the murders happening. There is a great bar
room brawl with Pena fighting off Morrow and his cronies over the death of his
dog. Morrow is this film’s version of J.R. Ewing, doing all sorts of underhanded
things to get Pena out of the way and build the cannery. But the real stars
of this film are the awesome looking but highly grotesque humanoids.

We find out later in that these giant salmon monsters were created
by Dr. Susan Drake (Ann Turkel) with DNA. The big climatic scene has the monsters
attacking various victims at a carnival. There are ripped off heads, exposed
ribs, spurting blood from the neck and tons of mayhem. It was here where Pena
decides to save the life of Morrow who is sliding down into the water where
the Humanoids are, after which they have a stare down. There is plenty of gore
throughout, in addition to gratuitous nudity. And the surprise “twist”
ending that was ripped right out of ALIEN was the birth of a baby humanoid coming
out of the stomach of Peggy (Lynn Theel, playing one of the rape victims).

I
absolutely love this movie. This is easily one of my favorite entries from Roger
Corman’s New World pictures, because of so many unforgettable scenes.
For starters, there’s the very sexy Lynn Theel and Meegan King (as Peggy
and Jerry, the couple that makes out a lot) seen groping in a lake when suddenly
Jerry is attacked by the monster. She thinks he is playing a joke on her which
he did earlier. With his back to her, Peggy turns Jerry around to see his face
ripped apart on one side in one very scary, nasty bit, and this is followed
by her getting raped by our aggresive fish creatures. Another really amusing
scene is where a couple are inside a tent on the beach – the young lady
takes off her clothes, revealing some very large, shapely breasts to a man who
is a ventriloquist. While holding the dummy the man states, “Want to see
my wood pecker?” Hilarious! Then all that frivolity quickly vanishes when
one of the Humanoids attacks and the girl runs around naked on the beach only
to run into another Humanoid who is quick to attack her.

The monster raping was one of the film’s biggest criticisms upon
release, as many believed these scenes went way too far. Gore was one thing,
watching monsters rape was another. But this was a Roger Corman production and
his vision was not to just make a movie, but to do groundbreaking things that
no one else would dream of doing, even if it was in another B effort made on
a miniscule budget. Before this, there was IT CONQUERED THE WORLD with a close
up of “It’s” eye getting burned and bloody. We had NIGHT OF
THE BLOOD BEAST with a pregnant man. There was the Edgar Allan Poe series which
if you have read Poe, realize that these films have to do with such topics as
being buried alive and necrophilia. There was ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL where
the kids spit on authority and blow up their school.

Some
interesting tidbits about this film – it was ironically directed by a
woman, Barbara Peeters (BURY ME AN ANGEL, SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS) who claims
she had nothing to do with the nude or raping scenes in this film. She had a
falling out with Corman and from what I have read, she was actually fired over
it. Corman wanted these scenes included for obvious reasons of exploitation.
Another person I want to mention is Hoke Howell (as Deke Jensen) who was also
in THE SIDEHACKERS aka FIVE THE HARD WAY. THE SIDEHACKERS is known to many fans
of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Howell had some small roles in a number of
low budget movies, including GRAND THEFT AUTO, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, EVIL
SPIRITS and ALIENATOR. He appears at the beginning of the film in a brief scene
where his boat blows up due to someone dropping a lighter on it where gasoline
had been spilt.

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP and Corman’s GALAXY OF TERROR (another
title which contained a monster raping a woman) were two of the most sought
after cult titles on the DVD market. Up until this year, HUMANOIDS had been
released before in a full frame transfer (in Japan there was an uncut letterboxed
version) while GALAXY had never been released before (at least in the U.S.).
Back in January of this year, Shout! Factory acquired the home video rights
to most of the Roger Corman New World library and it has been a fan’s
dream come true. Shout! Factory has done a monstrously wonderful job releasing
these genre classics to DVD, and HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP is no exception.

Previously
released in the U.S. from New Concorde Video, the previous transfer was decent,
but i was full frame and non-anamorphic. In Japan, there was an uncut widescreen
DVD of it containing a scene where a Humanoid rips a man’s head off at
a carnival during the climatic attack scene (needless to say, this became an
expensive collector’s item for fans who wanted the film widescreen and
uncut). Shout! Factory now delivers this gem with a fantastic Hi-definition
transfer, presenting it as the “Uncut International Version” under
the MONSTER title. It is a gorgeous anamorphic (1.78:1) widescreen transfer
to say the least. This is very pristine save for just some minor grain here
and there in a few scenes. The colors are vivid, the blacks aren’t too
dark and daytime scenes look just fantastic. This is almost uncut with the aforementioned
head ripping scene included. However, it is still missing a known bit which
is supposed to occur after the head is ripped off with the monster holding it
and smiling in front of the camera. The mono English sound quality on this is
fine, in Dolby 2.0. Shout! is also maling the film available on blu-ray disc.

This DVD does not contain a lot of bonus material (compared to some
of the other “Roger Corman’s Cult Classics”) but what it does
contain is really fantastic – which includes several deleted scenes –
an amazing discovery and personally I feel these scenes should have remained
in the released version of the film. I will mention that some of the deleted
scenes have no sound such as the bar scene. Some extra nude scenes were deleted
as well. Ported over from the previous DVD release is the Leonard Maltin interview
with Roger Corman discussing the film. Corman talks about how people screamed
in the theaters, how he saved the monster scenes toward the end and how Barbara
Peeters was the perfect woman director for this movie.

Another
great new supplement is a 22-minute featurette entitled “The Making of
HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP”. Chris Walas (SPFX man) Mark Goldblatt (film
editor), James Sbardellati (second unit director), Cynthia Weintraub (who played
Carol Hill, Jim’s wife in the picture), Ken Myers (SPFX man), Linda Shayne
(Miss Salmon during the climatic dockside battle scene), James Horner (the composer
of the fine score) and Roger Corman (the man that makes it all happen) are interviewed.
Some really interesting facts are brought up, such as how this movie was originally
shot as “Beneath the Darkness” and was initially a less violent
picture. The rape, nude and gore scenes were shot under the title “Humanoids
from the Deep” and were spliced into the “Beneath the Darkness”
movie, completely unbeknownst to the cast. This is where Barbara Peeters was
also mentioned. Corman talks about how she didn’t want to shoot the scenes
and the second unit director had to film them. Cynthia Weintraub mentions she
had no idea these scenes were spliced in and that the naked lady (who is supposed
to be her character) in the shower towards the end of the film is not her body
at all. Goldblatt mentions the film wasn’t scary enough so the violence
and rape was added to shock the audience. Corman mentions how he likes his women
to be independent and capable of taking care of problems themselves, not being
frail or weak. Also revealed here is that only three Humanoid suits were made.
One had longer arms, and two were standard suits. This entire “making
of” is really outstanding and is worth the price of the DVD alone in my
opinion.

There are also well written linear notes by Michael Felsher, President
of Red Shirt Pictures, talking about this film and including some cool background
information. Other bonus features include Radio and TV spots and a section of
New World trailers, one of which is UP FROM THE DEPTHS, which Shout! Factory
will release as a double bill with DEMON OF PARADISE in early 2011. There are
also some HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP trailers from the U.S. and Germany, as well
as a photo gallery with some very cool Japanese, German and U.S. posters, along
with stills and lobby cards from the film which this reviewer would love to
own! The DVD itself has a reversible cover, with the alternate cover being the
sleeve art for the Japanese DVD, carrying the MONSTER title.

There are still plenty more
“Roger Corman’s Cult Classics” titles on
their way, and Shout! Factory continues to impress not just with the selection
of releases, but with the quality and care they put into them. (David
Steigman)